The Children of Hypnos

Chapter 37: Chaos

Morrigan threw Wes off and ran to the ashes of her doppelgänger brother, now scattering into No Man's Land. Emery ran to Edgar.

He lay sprawled on the cracked earth, eyes closed. Emery put her hand on his chest but was too panicked to feel a heartbeat. She put her cheek near his lips. Soft breath curled over her skin.

He was alive. But hunters weren't supposed to collapse after they killed their doppelgängers.

"Edgar." She brushed his hair back, tried to smooth the red blotches from his cheeks. His skin was still wet from his tears. "Edgar, wake up."

He didn't.

"Emery!" Wes came up behind her, blood streaming from his broken nose, his eyes on Morrigan. Emery scooped up the Peacemaker close to Edgar and swung around, but Morrigan was already disappearing into the waking world with another blood-curdling scream.

Emery lunged for her other gun, several feet away, and shoved both in their holsters. She grabbed Edgar and hoisted him into her arms. He felt too light, like his insides had been scooped out. Wes was already opening his gateway; those two huge black eyes formed and stared at them as they passed back into the waking world.

Screams bubbled into existence as they emerged. A hand grabbed Emery when she got to the other side. Wes fell to the ballroom floor beside her, but Joel helped Emery support Edgar's weight. Students surged for the ballroom doors. Joel's face was pale as he looked from her to Edgar to Wes and back again, his hair askew, a shallow cut in his temple leaking blood down the side of his face.

"Em, what happened? Are you okay? Is Edgar...?"

"Where is she, Joel? Did you see her come out?"

"Em, your throat. Your face. Did she do that?"

"Joel, you need to leave—"

"Hey, Jojo!"

Joel spun. His arms came out to barricade Emery and Edgar behind him. Morrigan stood on his other side, her hair swirling angrily around her, her profile turned green by the moonlight coming in through the windows. Emery felt Joel freeze, his muscles rigid and his breath caught. Morrigan grabbed his collar. Emery fumbled for her guns, but Edgar's arms slipped free first, then his legs, and there was a tangle of limbs and Morrigan was close enough that her hair was curling around Joel's face and she was whispering something to him and then she stared at Emery over his shoulder.

A wet, thick impact.

Joel's soft wheeze.

The arch of his back.

Morrigan jerked, and something tore and ripped and blood gushed onto the floor between Joel's feet, followed a moment later by a long rope of pale intestine. Morrigan stepped back. Blood coated her left arm just past the wrist. Joel's arms fell and came together across his stomach. He began to turn, eyes searching until he found Emery. The front of his white shirt was stained crimson around the new hole in his abdomen.

"Em," he said, and coughed. Blood splattered Emery's face.

Joel fell as he turned, legs twisting, and collapsed in a pile of his own organs.

"Joel." She felt like she must have screamed it, but there came no noise. She sank to her knees at his feet, laying Edgar out on the floor, reaching for Joel's shiny prince charming boot. Blood spread around him. It reached his limp hand and pooled around his fingers.

Morrigan stood over them.

"I will kill everything you love—" she began.

Emery drew a revolver and fired. Morrigan cut off with a squeak, stumbling back; a perfect little hole appeared in the center of her chest, and Dream essence began pouring from it. Emery's revolver turned warm with the firing of her final bullet, the one that drove a mental spike through her temple. Morrigan looked down at the hole in her chest. Looked at Emery as Emery stood on trembling legs.